


In-between

by nylie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Slice of Life, kuroyaku weekend, nekoma cameos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-14 17:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11787822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nylie/pseuds/nylie
Summary: adj. situated somewhere between two extremesnoun. an intermediate thing.moments in-between places, times, feelings - (seemingly unrelated) snippets of Kuroo & Yaku's third year, leading somewhere ahead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noyabeans (snowdrops)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowdrops/gifts).



> This was written for kuroyaku weekend 2017 (kuroyakuweek @ tumblr), the theme was opposites and I kinda run with it and went, _well_ , the opposite way; hope it still fits the theme (I guess it's a more subtle connection but it does make all the sense in my head). 
> 
> Slightly inspired also by a bingo card noyabeans made for saso about liminal spaces, from which I also run with until there was nothing liminal about them (maybe one day, I'll go there instead) and all that was left behind were the spaces ~~(or other liminal spaces still not being liminal at all)~~. Still, I hope you like them!!!
> 
> Since I didn't finish these on time to have them checked, these are un'betaed. I plan to have someone take a look at them but I don't wanna be later than I already am, so I'll edit them when I do.

i. ( _march. nekoma’s bus stop_ )

 

“Oh,” he says.

“Oh,” Yaku says back.

As their buses set off into opposite directions, they fill the air with black noise. Kuroo can’t actually hear Yaku, but he knows the movement of his lips, the suspicion on his eyes, the way Yaku drops his shoulders as he hides his hands in his pockets, pretends to look away, looks up at him, again.

They stare at each other across the street.

It isn't unusual for them to arrive at the same time. They share classes, club activities, study sessions, but neither of them said they’d be earlier today. First official practice as third years sounds, somehow, significant. A last call at the station. Here they are now.

“Did you fall off your bed, captain?” Yaku asks as he walks over to him. He lifts his hand to ruffle the mess of hair in front of Kuroo’s eyes, gets his laugh caught in his lips. In front of them, Nekoma rises tall and waiting. Kuroo frowns and focus his eyes on Yaku’s fingers until everything becomes a blur.

“Maybe I wanted to be closer to the floor like you.”

Something dark crosses Yaku’s face. A beat of silence passes by, Kuroo thinks he could get a hold on it just before Yaku laughs.

“You are an idiot.” Yaku’s foot finds Kuroo’s shin and makes him trip as they walk inside. “Today… I’m gonna let that one pass.”

Kuroo presses forward, longer strides, makes Yaku keep up with his pace.

“I'm flattered. Are you planning on going soft on the first years too?”

Yaku glares at him, hits the gravel on the pavement―the stones roll in front of them, onward and away. He hides a smile before he looks up at Kuroo, determined. “As if. You are the soft one.”

Kuroo tilts his head, passes a finger over his lower lip. 

“Guess that makes us a good team.”

Yaku shrugs.

Up ahead, the gym looks bright against the morning sky.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm behind schedule, I'm posting the second one right away.  
> ft. kai "why are these my friends" noboyuki.

ii. ( _golden week. train station_ )

 

The train station is packed when they arrive that morning; the Nekoma volleyball club’s team members that make the first string keep themselves together, one coach upfront, the other behind. As if they were back in preschool. Kuroo would laugh if not for the fact that it’s the first time the team leaves Tokyo for training camp.

By his side, Kenma walks with his shoulder pressed against him, half paying attention to his surroundings, letting the mass of red and Kuroo’s presence lead him ahead. Yaku is laughing at something Kai said, full blown out smile, louder than the brimming life of the station. Kuroo follows its sound onto the train.

Once inside, he grabs Yaku’s shoulders, looks above every head, counts all ten of them and nods to Nekomata-sensei before Yaku can even complain.

“Off. Off. You,” he says, shaking his body free of Kuroo’s grasp without much force.

Kuroo lips quirk up, tongue twisting with a reply he lets roll off his thoughts until it’s gone. Yaku glares at him, shakes his head, sets ahead towards empty seats with intent in his step. Kenma has already perched himself against the window, Fukunaga sits by his side, quietly keeping Taketora at bay. Nekomata nods back to him, and Kuroo walks past the first years tracing Yaku and Kai's steps.

They are sitting on a four seat booth, both of them by the window, facing each other; Kai already looking outside and ready to ignore them, Yaku looking at Kuroo with his legs stretched on top on the seat by his side in a dare. Kuroo raises his eyebrows and promptly takes seat beside Kai, legs up and on top of Yaku's without a second thought, his feet dangling in the middle of the aisle. Yaku daring smile drops, “off, off” he says, pushing a hand against Kuroo’s legs.

The trains starts to move, outside, the station softly becomes a blur. Kuroo closes his eyes, lets his lips turn into a smile as the press of fingers against his skin fades off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For day 3.

III. ( _one random day. some stairs_ )

 

Yaku is sitting alone on the stairs that lead to the roof door. Students are not allowed outside and the top of the stairs is as close to the sky they can get on school grounds. Yaku, always two feet grounded on the court, looks eerie comfortable there; he has his bento box on his legs, the light of the façade open windows barely reaching his feet and a school book lying open by his side. Music blasts from the earphones of his phone, falling loosely around his neck. He looks insanely unworldly sitting there, just about to disappear were Kuroo to blink the image away.

“Are you going to eat here or did you just come to stare?”

“Rude, Yakkun. I was thinking.”

Yaku raises an eyebrow, laughs at him. “As if that ever happens.”

Kuroo should strike back. They have been going at this game for as long as they have known each other, the words prickle on his tongue, sitting there before he even has to think them.

“Make room,” he says instead.

He climbs the stairs two steps at a time, bending as the ceiling grows closer to the floor and looks for a place to sit. He considers sitting on top of Yaku just to piss him off, and opts to pick the book up and sit there instead. The steps aren’t wide enough and Yaku has to scoop himself to the side to give Kuroo space to spread his legs and look for his bento inside his bag. Yaku pursues his lips, takes his book back from Kuroo’s hands and puts his earphones on. He doesn’t complain.

Pressed together as they are, Kuroo shifts until they can both eat comfortable side by side. He opens his bento box on his knees, high enough that Yaku is almost eye to eye with the contents of his homemade lunch. From outside the windows, Nerima looks like an adventure waiting to happen.

“Thanks for the food,” Kuroo says, a smile on his lips, and lets Yaku steal the first bite.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ps. I'll be uploading an independent piece for free day later today, just if you want to take a look at that ;) 

 iv. ( _spring high, day two. by the vending machine_ )

 

The _ryokan_ is a different place early in the morning, there’s a soft yellow glow that comes from the open doors that lead to the garden and the quietness feels foreign in a place that was brimming with life the night before―too many teenagers being too loud in such a tiny space. Kuroo closes the zipper of his Nekoma jacket. There’s a breeze coming from outside, all white around the edges of the place.

Kuroo jumps the last steps of the stairs, lands in front of the vending machine; knees flexed, head tilted, and feet dangling off his sandals. Silly small things that they are. He presses for warm tea, hears the machine go _clink_ and _clank_.

As he bends down to pick his drink, he says: “Want one?”

“Are you buying?” Yaku leans on the railing and looks down on him. His hair is messily ruffled around his head and he wears a soft smile he found in his sleep. He hides a yawn behind on one of his hands and lets his face drop on top of his arm on the railing as he waits.  

Kuroo taps his foot on the floor, looks at his bottle and offers it to Yaku by pressing it on top of his cheek. Yaku opens his eyes and gives him a half-hooded glare, lips in a tight line. He yawns again.

His fingers cover Kuroo’s when he takes the bottle from him.

“You look so…,” _another_ _yawn_ , “…awake. Never had you for such an early riser.”

Kuroo shrugs and picks another green tea on the machine; he listens to Yaku’s steps as he walks towards the sofa and the soft movement of the fabric as his body makes a dent on its perfect surface. He looks ready to fall asleep again, with his legs curled under his body and his jacket extended as much as possible over his neck and arms.

Kuroo sits beside him, his own cold feet pressing against Yaku’s.

“I’m too asleep to hit you right now, don’t be a bully.”

Kuroo stifles a laugh behind his teeth, puts his feet under his own body to warm them up and opens up his bottle. The air is fresh on his face, it prickles against his skin with anticipation. Yaku takes another sip of tea and closes his eyes. He nudges his right foot closer to Kuroo. There’s a rustle of noise that comes from up the stairs like a wave, several teens waking up at the same time, eager and excited for the games ahead.

“Yaku…”

“Hmmm”

Kuroo bangs his bottle on Yaku’s foot like a toast.

“Let’s give it all today.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus day!

v. ( _leaving the team. nekoma’s gym_ )

 

The lights are out when Kuroo steps in.

It was him who turned them off, right after they had finished that afternoon, right after the speeches, after the crying, after the goodbyes that still linger half said at the back of his throat. He doesn’t turn them on.

The gym looks unusual under the moonlight. It feels cold, even with the spring air prickling on his skin. Bare and foreign. The very opposite of lived in. In the darkness, it no longer feels like home.

“It always gave me shivers at night.” Yaku’s voice comes from the emptiness and then his body follows suit until the whole of him is standing by Kuroo’s side. His face full of shadows. “Too silent,” Yaku says. He scrapes his feet on the floor and the familiar squeak of shoes on wood fills the air.

Kuroo breathes in. Swallows. Closes his eyes.

“I used to like it,” he confesses. It’s clear to him he doesn’t like it _now_. The dim light that comes from the windows on the up floor covers everything with a faint veil of oddness, fills them with huge amounts of nothing, unmakes the memories he has.

“Of course you did.” Yaku snorts, fond and annoyed at the same time.

In the corner of his mouth hide sentences full of meaning and empty of words, a feeling of sorts. He _is_ shivering. Kuroo can feel it where their arms touch and this particular lack of space feels alight _._

Something burns all too bright in the silence that follows and, as they leave the moonlight trapped inside, Kuroo thinks it might be them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first I wrote and the reason the rest exist ;; even if it's the shortest.  
> I hope you enjoyed them!!
> 
> Thank you for reading and kudo-ing and commenting, it means the world!!!
> 
> And thank you for kuroyakuweekend, hope we get another one of this in the future <3!


End file.
